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Far, far away is a world of pure energy ruled by the Sentinel. In this Spectrum conversion of Firebird's original and very addictive game you must battle the Sentinel over a staggering 10,000 landscapes all packed into just 48K!

The landscapes of this strange land appear as plateaus that rise into peaks. On top of the highest peak stands the Sentinel. This powerful being slowly rotates, scanning the land beneath it and absorbing anything with a surplus of energy (The standard energy unit is a tree worth one unit of energy). You have other ideas as you are in a generating, energy-converting transfer robot that can use the energy from the trees to build robots and boulders and to climb the heights - in order to do battle with the Sentinel.

Although you can rotate, you can't actually move, so you must travel the landscape by building another robot and transferring to it. You can then re-absorb your old shell and so conserve your energy. To get to the higher plateaus, you may also need to build a boulder on which you can stand a new robot and so on until you can get close enough to absorb the Sentinel.

The Sentinel naturally makes this as difficult as possible - it's difficult enough finding your way around a landscape full of deep holes and steep cliffs, and if it catches you in its deadly gaze it will start absorbing your energy, unit by unit. But it can only do this if it can see the base of the square or boulder you're standing on. If it can't, it turns the nearest tree into a meanie to flush you out.

To help you in your quest you get a map of the landscape displayed on the screen before you begin, but this is soon forgotten when the action heats up.

The secret seems to be to absorb every tree you can find so you can afford to build boulders - they cost two units - and robot shells - they cost three units - find the Sentinel and then keep track of the direction and speed he's rotating. Then, time your attack carefully, sneak up behind him and absorb him. Landscape one completed, only 9,999 to go!

Luckily, you don't have to attempt every single landscape as you are given a code, once you've defeated a Sentinel, for the next landscape plus the energy you have left. So, if you complete landscape 133 with 15 units of energy left, then you'll be given the code for landscape 149.

As you progress through the landscapes, the game gets harder and harder. The Sentinel is joined by one or more sentries that are just as deadly as the Sentinel, and must be absorbed before you can tackle the Sentinel. To make things worse, the landscapes get more barren, which means less cover for you and almost constant harrassment from the Sentinel and his sentries. For example, in one level you begin in a wide open space surrounded by a circle of peaks containing the Sentinel and eight sentries!

This Spectrum conversion is actually quicker to play than the C64 original and features the option to define the screen colours and has different landscape codes, so even experienced Sentinel players will have to start from scratch.

One of the best and most original games that I've seen this year.